A victim of isolation since her birth, the girl found in a safe in 2013 now suffers from autism. His parents face 20 years in prison.
The affair is sordid, its fallout no less so. Serena, found naked, dirty and dehydrated in a car trunk when she was only two years old, now suffers from autism. The public prosecutor of Brive (Corrèze), Laurent Czernik, confirmed this on July 12 by means of a press release. One expert associates the developmental disorder with the conditions in which the girl was raised.
Lack of communication
The case came to light in October 2013. A car was left with a garage in Tarasson (Dordogne). In his trunk, a two-year-old child in a state of dehydration and obviously suffering from a lack of care. The investigation reveals an even darker story. Since her birth, Serena has been kept hidden from the rest of the world. His only place of life is a room where no one ever goes. The little girl remained “locked in the dark and without contact with the surrounding people”, summarizes Laurent Czernik in a press release.
Several expertises were carried out on this young victim of abuse. The latest confirms an autistic syndrome “probably irreversible”. While the child is 4 years old at the time of the examination, his actual development is reminiscent of a toddler of 3 years “posturally” and 18 months of coordination.
Serena does not communicate, her language is composed of inarticulate sounds “which were not addressed to others, except at privileged moments, to her maternal assistant.” She does not look at the people around her and does not attempt to communicate with them. So many symptoms suggestive of autism.
Up to 20 years in prison
The conclusion of the experts is likely to cost the parents of the girl dearly. In addition to confirming the autistic syndrome, they establish a causal link with the isolation and sensory deprivation suffered by Serena.
If a shock is in no way likely to cause autism, restriction of the senses is on the other hand a serious avenue of research. A thesis study conducted on the dog shows that the gestures and tics suggestive of the pathology “are often observed in individuals with mental retardation or having undergone an early environmental restriction”.
In the book In praise of autistic thought, psychopathologist Benoît Virole, confirms this thesis: forms of autism exist in patients who do not have the genes involved. “They would be forms adaptive to particular event situations (eg hospitalism, maternal depression, sensory deprivation, loss of regulatory skills),” he writes.
This causal link could well reclassify the lawsuits against which Serena’s parents are subject: Laurent Czernik now speaks of “habitual violence against a minor under 15 having resulted in permanent disability”.
The facts are therefore punishable by criminal imprisonment before an assize court. The public prosecutor of Brive asked to be relieved of the case in favor of the criminal investigation unit of the TGI of Limoges. Both adults face up to 20 years in prison.
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